Your digestive tract, or gut, plays a hugely important role in your overall health. When your digestive tract is damaged, also known as leaky gut, partially digested protein and fat can seep through your intestinal lining and into the blood stream. Symptoms of leaky gut include food sensitivities, joint pain, fatigue, bloating, headaches, skin issues, weight gain, and more. Fortunately, the cells in your digestive tract are replaced over 48 hours, so by following a gut healing routine, you can pretty quickly start seeing your symptoms fade away. Here are some ways you can begin to rebuild your gut health.
Remove Known Inflammatory Foods
While your gut is healing, it is essential to remove allergens and inflammatory foods. This includes un-sprouted grains, added sugar, artificial sweeteners, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), refined oils (canola, soy, corn, vegetable oils), synthetic food additives, and conventional dairy products. In additional to removing inflammatory foods that can exacerbate leaky gut, it is best to eliminate your exposure to toxins. Drink purified water and avoid pesticides by eating organic foods when possible.
Peppermint, Lemon and Ginger
Mint has been used medicinally for thousands of years, since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Peppermint, a hybrid of water mint and spearmint, has antispasmodic properties that make it ideal for relieving gastrointestinal discomfort. The cooling menthol in peppermint can soothe and relax the intestinal tract, and therefore reduce pain, gas, and constipation. Drink an organic tea containing peppermint of add a pure food grade peppermint essential oil to your cool or hot water. It will float to the top and coat the side of the cup, so you’ll experience the peppermint for more than one cup or glass.
Lemon is high in Vitamin C, which is an antioxidant that suppresses inflammation and boosts the immune system. Nearly 80% of your immune system is housed in your gut. In addition, Vitamin C is antimicrobial and may support a healthy bacterial balance in your gut. To get the most benefits from lemon, rather than just squeezing out the juice, try blending whole, peeled lemons and stir the puree into your water or throw lemon wedges right into your smoothie. This way you’ll get the benefit of the pectin, a type of prebiotic fiber, that can feed the good bacteria in your gut.
Ginger root is a long used remedy for digestive complaints. Ginger is known for its ability to ease nausea, and can help relieve digestive symptom complaints such as stomach cramps, gas, bloating, constipation, and diarrhea. Ginger can also help with nutrient absorption, which is often compromised when you gut is out of balance.
Eat Lots of Fiber
Fiber is essential for digestive health. Getting enough fiber in your diet helps support the digestive tract and can reduce inflammation. In addition, fiber feeds the good bacteria in the gut, so it’s vital to eat fiber-rich foods as often as possible. There are lots of great fiber rich foods like raspberries, peas, lentil, legumes, artichoke, and acorn squash. For example, a cup of raspberries contains 8g of fiber which is roughly a quarter of your daily fiber needs. In addition, research has found that eating raspberries with a meal improves insulin sensitivity, and increases the good bacteria in your gut. You can also incorporate fiber rich foods in smoothies and desserts.
Healthy Fats
Make sure you get plenty of healthy Omega-3 fats from things like grass-fed beef, lamb and wild-caught fish like salmon. Omega’3 fats reduce inflammation and increase healthy gut bacteria. If you are vegan/vegetarian you may benefit from the medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) found in coconut. Even if you’re not a vegetarian, this type of fat is easier to digest than other fats so they work well for leaky gut. In addition, they aid in nutrient absorption. As an added bonus, coconut kefir and yogurt contains probiotics that support your digestive system.
You can also get healthy fats from things like ghee (clarified butter), egg yolks, and avocados. These are all easy on the gut and promote healing.
Supplements
While you can get much of what you need from food, you may experience faster healing by taking supplements. A good healthy gut healing tool kits consists of digestive enzymes, probiotics, licorice root, l-glutamine, and marshmallow root. Probiotics replenish good bacteria and crowd out bad bacteria. Digestive enzymes ensure that foods are fully digested, decreasing the chance that partially digested foods particles and proteins are damaging your gut wall. L-glutamine is an essential amino acid and acts as a protector by coating your cell walls. Licorice root has been used medicinally for hundreds of years. It helps support the body’s natural processes for maintaining the mucosal gut lining. Finally, marshmallow root helps restore the integrity of the gut lining by forming a protective layer around the cells in the gut.
Did this help you? If so, I’d greatly appreciate it if you commented and/or share it on social media.
Email: sharonledwards@hotmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharonledwardsbiz/